Statebuilding support to fragile states. The interplay between European engagement and domestic legitimation during the 2015 electoral cycle in Burundi: a temporal analysis.

Over the past two decades, statebuilding has emerged as a central yet contested concept of international engagement with fragile states, with new questions arising under the current global rise of authoritarianism. To remain in power, what are the mechanisms authoritarian regimes rely on to legitimate themselves? And what is the nature of interplay between these legitimation mechanisms and international engagement? These are the questions this research aims to answer, through exploratory within-case analysis. The research focusses on European statebuilding support to Burundi throughout the 2015 elections. While these elections sparked a legitimacy crisis, they did not prevent further consolidation of authoritarian rule. The applicant's preliminary findings point towards distinct stages of interplay between European engagement and domestic legitimation, following a shift from support to contestation of the incumbent regime. This shift, in turn, triggered notable changes in domestic legitimation, revealing both clear yet unexpected regime agency and the tactical use of time and temporality. Two provisional conclusions can be drawn from this. First, European actors have dealt inadequately with the legitimacy dimension of state fragility, and second, through the interplay with domestic legitimation they seem to have contributed to authoritarian regime consolidation. Process tracing, a suited method for inferring causality, will be used to further refine and conclude the analysis. test

Keywords:LEGITIMACY, DEVELOPMENT AID

Disciplines:Development studies